A gang of venture capital firms and startup funds has asked the Trump administration to save an immigration rule that allows foreign startup founders to come to the US in order to build their companies.
Exactly 60 companies and organizations on Thursday signed a letter [PDF] asking the President to scrap plans to rescind the …

A new multi-million dollar fund is planning to invest in promising Israeli tech startups.
YL Ventures, based in both Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, has put together a $75m war chest to invest in seed stage Israeli companies in high-growth sectors including cybersecurity, enterprise software, autonomous vehicles, drone …

Silicon Valley is very big on virtual reality right now. But imagine a VR “game” where you can control a company remotely, but without any of the fiduciary duty that the law places on a company executive, or an investor?
You don’t need nerd goggles to play this game. For it’s very similar to the relationship that’s emerged …

Comment
We just didn’t know it at the time, but Pebble’s fate was sealed in May 2013 when it surrendered control to outsiders who saddled it with debt.
Yesterday Pebble’s new owner Fitbit lost no time in closing down the operation, not merely snuffing out any prospect of new products, but warning Pebble owners that they’re not going …

A group of venture capitalists are asking US President-elect Donald Trump to implement a series of tax cuts and policies they say will bring more funding for startups.
In a letter (PDF) to the real-estate mogul turned-politician, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) asks for tax breaks for ventural capital companies …

While venture capitalists have been tightening their belts over the past year, there’s still a lot of love and funding for security startups – especially if you’re working in the right areas.
During a panel discussion at the Structure Security conference in San Francisco today, a trio of top VCs identified three key areas …

Radbot
In which Damon Hart-Davis talks about life as a tech entrepreneur and tells us about his product.
I toiled in banking for circa 20 years, amongst other gigs, including at the much-loved Lehman Brothers (motto: “Where Vision Gets Bilked” or whatever) and RBS, and a previous fintech start-up of mine, though I’m also an …

A pair of newly passed bills in the US Congress will increase the amount of money tech startups can raise to cover their early expenses.
The Fix Crowdfunding Act (HR 4855) and the Supporting America's Investors Act (HR 4854) will raise the limits on money that companies can gather through crowdsourcing and venture capital …

Venture capitalists have poured $131m of fresh funding into a Slack-like collaboration startup, Domo.
Domo, founded in 2010, secured the money in a top-up to an existing Series D funding round from a tranche of its existing backers plus newbie Credit Suisse. That existing round was for $200m and took place in April 2015. …

ICGS
Fears of another technology startup bubble bursting are "legitimate," says the outgoing head of Intel's venture capital arm.
As a result, the chip biz is playing it safe in "overheated sectors" of the market, and looking overseas for the next big thing.
It's not widely known but Intel Capital is one of the largest venture …

GitHub has received a $250m infusion of venture-capital cash that values the code-sharing website at $2bn.
That means it's worth more than ZenDesk ($1.78bn), slightly less than the New York Times ($2.17bn), and more than stricken Yelp ($1.87bn).
The San Francisco-based upstart said its Series-B funding round was led by VC …

Worstall on Wednesday
A internal presentation from Andreessen Horowitz aimed at its limited partners, that has to be taken with the appropriate shovelful of salt, has emerged – and the insights it reveals into the “tech bubble” are absolutely fascinating.
U.S. Technology Funding -- What's Going On? from a16z
Take it with a shovelful of salt …

Online hat-passer GoFundMe has sold off a controlling stake of its business to investors who value it at roughly $600m.
The Wall Street Journal cited sources familiar with the matter in reporting the donations broker had completed a round of venture capital funding that culminated with investors taking over the majority …

Code-sharing website GitHub is pursuing a new round of venture capital based on a US$2bn (£1.26bn) valuation.
Bloomberg cited sources familiar with the matter in reporting that GitHub is in the middle of a series-b funding push to raise US$200m in capital.
That dosh would give investors a 10 per cent stake in the company …

Twitter has quietly extended its venture-capital appendage for the first time to invest in Cyanogen, a start-up challenging Google's Android.
The creatively named "Twitter Ventures" was announced as party to Cyanogen's recent $80m pass around of the collection plate, and is listed alongside Rupert Murdoch, Vivi Nevo and a …

Bosses at selfie-swapping upstart Snapchat spent the weekend in Saudi Arabia seeking investment from the Warren Buffett of the Middle East: Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal.
The self-destructing-photo app biz is looking for about $500m, and hopes the prince – a member of Saudi Arabia's ruling royal family – can chip in a few million …

Startup-land Australia likes nothing more than to whinge about how hard it is for tech companies to find their first investors in Australia. The sector is considered scarcely capable of spelling HTML, never mind capable of understanding its importance enough to invest in someone that wields it.
Complaints about how hard it is …

You ever have one of those weeks where nothing seems to go right?
Maybe the train runs late in the rain. Or the lace on your boot breaks as you're walking out the door. Or maybe four major cities across the planet line up to sue you.
Yeah, Uber just had a week like that – just days after it was injected with $1.2bn of funding …